GAC Group Key Stats
- IncorporatedJune 1997
- HeadquartersGuangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Stock ExchangesHKEX (2238) · SSE (601238)
- Revenue (2023)~¥130B (~$18B USD)
- Employees~93,000
Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. — known internationally as GAC Group — is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The company was incorporated in June 1997 and became a holding company of Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group in 2005. It ranks among the five largest automobile manufacturers in China by volume and is listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (ticker 2238) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange (ticker 601238).
GAC Group’s portfolio spans its own brands — Trumpchi (passenger cars), Aion (battery-electric vehicles), and Hyptec (premium EVs) — alongside a series of jointly branded vehicles produced through partnerships with Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Hino, and, until recently, Fiat Chrysler. The joint ventures with Honda and Toyota have historically contributed the majority of the group’s volume and profitability, though GAC has progressively invested in its wholly-owned brands as China’s EV market has expanded.
By end-2024, GAC’s products reached 74 countries and regions, supported by approximately 490 overseas sales and service outlets. The company sold 127,000 vehicles internationally in 2024, a 67.6% increase from the prior year, with self-branded vehicles crossing 100,000 units overseas for the first time. GAC Aion, its pure-electric subsidiary, ranked as the world’s third-largest battery electric vehicle brand in 2023 behind Tesla and BYD.
GAC Group History
The institutional predecessor of GAC Group is the Tongsheng Machining Plant, founded in Guangzhou in 1948 to produce automotive components for the local market. Over the following decades it evolves through various restructurings of Guangzhou’s state-owned industrial assets. Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. is formally incorporated in June 1997, consolidating several of the city’s automobile-related manufacturing interests under a single holding structure.
GAC establishes its first major joint venture, GAC Honda Automobile Company Limited, with Honda in July 1998. Production of the Honda Accord for the Chinese market begins in Guangzhou. The venture proves highly profitable: by 2005, GAC Honda is selling more than 203,000 vehicles per year, ranking it fifth among all carmakers in China by volume. The GAC Honda partnership establishes a template — domestic production of globally designed vehicles under a foreign brand — that GAC would apply repeatedly over the following decade.
GAC forms GAC Toyota in 2004, beginning production of the Camry in Guangzhou from 2006. In 2008, GAC establishes GAC Hino to assemble Hino-brand commercial trucks. The group also begins preliminary work on an independent passenger car brand during this period, setting up the GAC Automotive Engineering Institute in 2006 and formally incorporating GAC Motor in July 2008 as the vehicle for its own-brand ambitions.
GAC acquires a 29% stake in Changfeng Automobile in 2009, becoming its largest shareholder, and completes the full acquisition in 2011 — a transaction reportedly linked to regulatory conditions on an upcoming joint venture with Fiat Chrysler. GAC FCA is established in 2009 to produce Fiat and Jeep vehicles for the Chinese market. In 2010, the group lists on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the second Chinese mainland automobile group to do so.
GAC Motor’s Panyu production plant completes construction in September 2010, and the group launches its first wholly-owned passenger car brand, Trumpchi, with the GA5 sedan as the debut model. The GA5 is based on an Alfa Romeo 166 platform licensed from Fiat. Trumpchi earns positive reviews for its build quality relative to other Chinese domestic brands of the era, laying the groundwork for the brand’s later expansion into SUVs. In the same year GAC lists on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under ticker 2238.
GAC lists on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (ticker 601238) in early 2012, completing a dual listing. The group also forms GAC Mitsubishi in 2012 to produce the ASX, Outlander, and Pajero for the Chinese market. In 2013, GAC establishes an international business department and launches its first export market — Kuwait — followed by Lebanon, Nigeria, Bahrain, the UAE, and several others. The Trumpchi GS5 SUV launches in the same year and becomes the first genuine sales breakout product for the wholly-owned brand.
GAC Trumpchi makes its debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2015, the first Chinese brand to appear there, drawing significant international attention. The Trumpchi GS4 compact SUV launches in 2015 and becomes a domestic bestseller in China, reportedly making Trumpchi a widely recognized brand in the country. In 2017, the premium Trumpchi GS8 SUV further extends the brand’s price range upward.
GAC launches its dedicated new energy vehicle brand, Aion (initially GAC New Energy), in 2018. The Aion S and Aion LX battery-electric vehicles enter the market in 2019. At Auto Guangzhou 2020, GAC New Energy is rebranded as GAC Aion and declared operationally independent from the Trumpchi passenger car business. The group also establishes GAC MOTOR Rus Co., Ltd. in Russia and completes GAC MOTOR (Hong Kong)’s registration in 2019, marking the first formal overseas corporate structures for the group’s self-owned brands.
GAC Aion grows rapidly, with the company selling 123,660 electric vehicles in 2021, rising to more than 480,000 in 2023 — making GAC Aion the world’s third-largest battery electric vehicle brand that year behind Tesla and BYD. By 2023, annual sales of both GAC Motor (Trumpchi) and GAC Aion each exceed 400,000 units, together accounting for more than 35% of the group’s total sales volume. New energy vehicles reach 58% of wholly-owned brand sales. In November 2023, GAC signs a cooperation agreement with Huawei to develop a new high-end electric brand.
GAC completes structural adjustments across its joint ventures, converting GAC Hino into GAC Commercial Vehicle for electric commercial vehicles and absorbing GAC Mitsubishi’s assets into GAC Aion. The Huawei partnership produces Huawang Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., incorporated in March 2025, with the Qijing GT7 as its first vehicle — a high-end EV incorporating Huawei’s intelligent driving software and smart cockpit systems. GAC Aion also launches its intelligent manufacturing facility in Thailand, the group’s first overseas production plant.
GAC Group Key Leaders
Zhang Fangyou — Chairman
Zhang Fangyou has served as chairman of GAC Group, overseeing the group’s development through the rapid expansion of its EV portfolio and the strategic partnerships with Honda, Toyota, and later Huawei. Under his tenure the group has grown its overseas sales network to 74 countries and set ambitious targets for wholly-owned brand international expansion.
Feng Xingya — President
Feng Xingya has served as president of GAC Group and previously as general manager of GAC Motor. He has been closely associated with the Trumpchi brand’s growth from its 2010 launch through its domestic breakout in the mid-2010s and with the strategic push to bring GAC’s wholly-owned brands to international markets. Feng has been a public advocate for Chinese automotive brands competing globally on quality rather than price alone.
Ancient Roots: Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group (GAIG)
GAC Group is a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group Co., Ltd. (GAIG), the state-owned parent entity that holds a controlling stake. GAIG traces its industrial lineage to the Tongsheng Machining Plant founded in Guangzhou in 1948. As the state enterprise that incorporated GAC Group in 1997, GAIG acts as the ultimate controlling shareholder and strategic director, particularly on questions of national industrial policy and joint venture approvals.
GAC Group Revenue
GAC Group’s consolidated revenue has grown significantly over the past decade, driven by rising vehicle sales volumes across both its joint venture and wholly-owned brand operations. Revenue reached approximately ¥106.7 billion (around $16 billion) in 2022, up from ¥75.1 billion in 2021, and climbed further to an estimated ¥130 billion in 2023 as GAC Aion’s strong EV sales contributed meaningfully to group results. Revenue pulled back in 2024 — to approximately ¥108 billion — as intense EV price competition in China squeezed margins across the industry and joint venture vehicle sales softened. The figures below are approximate USD equivalents; GAC reports in Chinese renminbi.
GAC Group Acquisitions and Joint Ventures
GAC’s growth model has relied more on joint ventures with foreign automakers than on outright acquisitions of competitors — a pattern common among large Chinese state-owned automotive groups operating under regulatory frameworks that have historically required foreign brands to partner with a domestic manufacturer to access the Chinese market.
The most consequential of these partnerships are GAC Honda (1998) and GAC Toyota (2004), which together have accounted for the majority of the group’s vehicle sales volume and profit over their lifetimes. GAC Toyota alone was selling approximately 600,000 vehicles per year in China by 2022. GAC Hino (2008) extended the group into commercial trucks; GAC Mitsubishi (2012) added Japanese crossovers for the domestic market; and GAC FCA (2009) brought Jeep and Fiat products to China. GAC Mitsubishi was wound down in 2023 as Mitsubishi exited the Chinese market, with assets subsequently integrated into GAC Aion’s operations.
On the acquisition side, GAC’s most significant transaction was the 2009–2011 purchase of Changfeng Automobile, a Chinese SUV maker in which GAC first acquired a 29% stake before completing the full buyout. The deal gave GAC additional manufacturing capacity and was reportedly a precondition for obtaining regulatory approval for the GAC FCA joint venture.
More recently, GAC has pursued equity-based technology partnerships rather than traditional acquisitions. In 2024, GAC Aion invested ¥600 million into Huawang Automotive — the Huawei-collaboration entity — securing a 28.57% indirect stake via Aion, while GAC Group directly holds 71.43% of Huawang. This structure gives GAC access to Huawei’s intelligent driving and cockpit technology without ceding control of the new brand. GAC also holds stakes in GAC-CATL Power Battery (with battery maker CATL) and GAC-SOFINCO Auto Finance (with French financial services group SOFINCO).
GAC Group Competitors
GAC competes across several distinct segments simultaneously: as a joint venture partner competing against other foreign-brand JVs in the mid-market passenger car segment, as a domestic brand through Trumpchi competing against other Chinese automakers, and as an EV producer through Aion competing in a field dominated by BYD and a growing number of pure-play EV startups.
| Company | Country | Primary Competition | Annual Sales (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| BYD Auto | China | EVs, plug-in hybrids, domestic brands | ~1.76M NEVs (2023) |
| SAIC Motor | China | Joint ventures (VW, GM), own brands | ~5.3M vehicles (2023) |
| Dongfeng Motor Group | China | Joint ventures (Nissan, Honda), own brands | ~2.5M vehicles (2023) |
| FAW Group | China | Joint ventures (Toyota, VW, Audi) | ~3.6M vehicles (2023) |
| Chery Automobile | China | Domestic brands, international exports | ~1.88M vehicles (2023) |
| Geely Automobile | China | Domestic and EV brands (also owns Volvo) | ~1.79M vehicles (2023) |
| Nio | China | Premium battery-electric vehicles | ~160,000 EVs (2023) |
| Li Auto | China | Extended-range electric SUVs | ~376,000 vehicles (2023) |
| Honda Motor | Japan | Competes via non-GAC China operations | ~4.1M vehicles globally (2023) |
| Toyota Motor | Japan | Competes via non-GAC China operations | ~11.2M vehicles globally (2023) |
GAC Group Market Cap
GAC Group is dual-listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Its market capitalisation reached a peak around 2017–2018, when the group’s joint venture volumes were growing strongly and investor interest in Chinese automakers with both domestic-brand and JV exposure was high. The share price — and market cap — retreated significantly from 2019 onward as trade tensions, COVID-related production disruptions, and the accelerating shift to EVs introduced uncertainty about the joint ventures’ long-term profitability. By early 2026, GAC’s combined market capitalisation was approximately $11–12 billion, reflecting both the pressure on JV profitability and ongoing losses at GAC Aion as EV competition intensified.
FAQs
What does GAC stand for?
GAC stands for Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. — derived from the first letters of Guangzhou Automobile Corporation. The full Chinese name is 广州汽车集团股份有限公司 (Guǎngzhōu Qìchē Jítuán Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī). Internationally the company is most commonly referred to as GAC Group or simply GAC.
What brands does GAC Group make?
GAC Group’s wholly-owned brands include Trumpchi (mainstream passenger cars and SUVs), Aion (battery-electric vehicles), and Hyptec (premium EVs). Through joint ventures, it produces vehicles under the Honda, Toyota, and Hino brands. The Huawang brand, developed with Huawei, is in early-stage production as of 2025.
Is GAC Group state-owned?
Yes. GAC Group is a state-owned enterprise, controlled by Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group (GAIG), which is in turn wholly owned by the Guangzhou municipal government. The company is publicly listed on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, but GAIG retains a controlling stake and exercises oversight of major strategic decisions.
What is GAC Aion?
GAC Aion is GAC Group’s battery-electric vehicle subsidiary, rebranded from GAC New Energy in 2020. It operates as an independent brand within the group, producing pure-electric vehicles under the Aion name. In 2023, GAC Aion sold approximately 480,000 vehicles, ranking it as the world’s third-largest dedicated battery EV brand after Tesla and BYD.
Where does GAC sell cars outside China?
As of end-2024, GAC products are sold in 74 countries and regions across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, supported by roughly 490 overseas sales and service outlets. GAC Aion opened its first overseas intelligent manufacturing plant in Thailand in 2024. The company has stated ambitions to enter Western European and North American markets, though mass-market sales in those regions had not commenced as of early 2026.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, and www.gac-motor.com/en.
**Video published on YouTube by “Sergey Karpenko“.
